Google Pixel 2

Matt Swider swoons over the best smartphone camera he’s seen, then realises the rest is a bit 2016...

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The Pixel 2, with its five-inch screen, doesn’t look like the future of smartphones. It easily fits into one hand thanks to its palmable dimensions and light weight. A few years ago, this would’ve been considered a phablet, but today, next to the Note 8, it’s a normal-sized phone.

It’s now IP67 waterproof (which means that they can go underwater up to one meter’s depth for up to an hour) and retains a glass-and-metal design on the back, albeit with less glass toward the top compared to its predecessors. The fingerprint has been moved onto the textured aluminium portion of the back, while the camera remains on the glass side and has a protective ring around it now.

You won’t find a headphone jack on this phone or even USB-C earbuds inside the box. It just comes with a simple 3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter. Audio still sounds great when paired with the headphones, and we even liked listening to music through the dual front-facing stereo speakers.